With the advent of laparoscopic surgery came a great need and stimulus for the development of new instrumentation. A considerable number of new instruments have been developed, introduced, and accepted over the past few years. The vast majority of these new surgical instruments, however, are specifically designed for the performance of laparoscopic surgical procedures and are seldom, if ever, suitable for conventional surgery.
In the prior art, all tissue forceps stem from a basic design comprised of two flexible metal plates, which are joined on one end. The two metal plates are spread apart beyond the affixed region due to the inherent spring like properties of these metal plates. The free ends or jaws of these plates are equidistant from the joined end and are brought to an apposition when the two plates are directed towards each other by squeezing them between the thumb on and the index finger.
The inside surfaces of the free ends or jaws of these plates are usually comprised of complimentary ridges and crevices, "teeth" and recesses, etc., so that, upon approximation, they hold firmly any tissue that is engaged between their two free ends or jaws. The configuration of the grasping surface, the presence or absence of teeth, and the size and smoothness of the jaws usually is connoted by the name of the forceps, such as Adson forceps, DeBakey forceps, intestinal forceps, forceps with teeth, plain forceps, "thin" forceps, packing forceps, etc.
Once the tissue is engaged between the jaws of the forceps, the tissue can be manipulated, rotated for inspecting the tissues, and/or approximated to another tissue. To a person familiar with the art of surgery, the forceps are commonly used to hold a tissue to be inspected, examined, or sutured to another tissue or organ. This is accomplished by sequentially grasping the tissues to be sutured to each other with a pair of forceps and then sequentially passing a needle with an attached thread through said tissues. An alternate method of suturing or stapling tissues to each other involves using two pairs of forceps, one with each hand, grasping two different parts of the tissues and bringing said parts of tissues together by approximating the forceps. The tissues can then be firmly affixed with a suture or a staple. This alternate method requires an assistant, who approximates the tissues and holds them while the surgeon inserts the needle to suture or fire the gun to staple the tissues together.
In laparoscopic procedures, an instrument, called the Maritsa tissue approximator, U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,332, is used to accomplish the tissue approximation but has a different mechanism of action and would be too cumbersome for use in conventional surgery.
The object of this invention is to accomplish the approximation of the tissues to be sutured or stapled or otherwise affixed together with one instrument using only one hand, the surgeon's. The other hand can be used for suturing or stapling the tissues together. In this manner, the need for an assistant is eliminated; the assistant can be used for exposure and retraction of the tissues, so that optimal visualization of the surgical field is established for the surgeon. In the performance of small procedures, when an assistant is not present, the surgeon can perform approximation of the tissues more expeditiously and precisely, thus achieving better results.